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Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

Please help

I have very deep concerns about Facebook and what it's doing to
our society. I know it's a wonderful way to make friends from
around the world – although I've managed to do that with email.

What concerns me is this inclination to only have “virtual
friends.” People are isolating themselves. Where are their
face-to-face friends? Where are the friends they used to chat
with by phone? What's with this constant texting? One line of
bad spelling is a conversation?

Everything is completely impersonal, now. Yet, it's addictive
and intrusive. While folks are out to lunch or with any friends
at all, anywhere, they're texting and fooling around with other
“friends” they don't even know. How rude can you get? It's as if
they don't dare miss a message. What the hell's going to happen
if they do? It's just incredibly stupid.

Do you know your next door neighbor? Probably not. And, why would
anyone want to tell complete strangers the story of their life on
Facebook? They don't even know who they're “talking” to.

Not to mention that all this information they're putting out
there can come back and bite them in the butt at any time. It's
costing people jobs – causing court cases to be lost – and who
knows what else!

It amuses me to see the people worrying about Facebook's privacy
policies all the while they're posting inappropriate material
about themselves for the entire world to see. They tell things
they should have better sense than to tell anyone but a closest
friend - a real friend. Facebook people are not their friends!

Last week, I saw a commercial for a car that “allows you to use
all your social media hands free.” WHAT?! I don't care whether
you're using your hands, or not – how safe a driver are you
while you're using social media at all? UNbelieveable!

Excuse me for being old-fashioned, but when push comes to shove –
at least in the USA – folks will be cut off from the internet
and they're going to wish they had real flesh and blood friends
to turn to.

Social media, carried to the extremes it's been carried to, has
done little but isolate folks – and put them in grave danger.

"It looks like Facebook is finally taking search more
seriously. The company is reportedly working overtime on
improving its own search feature ...”

"Last week, the Federal Trade Commission released its final
report on privacy. Jules Polonetsky, the Director and Co-Chair
of the Future of Privacy Forum
explained that, while the FTC did ask Congress to pass privacy
legislation, it placed a greater emphasis on finding industry
best practices for self-regulation.“

Again – no news!

Be careful about believing what you think you read online. It's
likely not the facts you think you're reading. Watch the
wording.

Now, sometimes – especially in email – outright lies are passed
around. We all know this. And, in an election year, these emails
will increase.

Please don't simply accept the truth of every email sent to you
– and shoot it out to everyone you know - just because it's
something you want to believe. You can make serious mistakes
(and look ridiculous) that way. Check it out.

When you receive the one stating the Medicare fee will go up to
$247 in 2014 – check Snopes before you have a heart attack:

I'm really worried about all the online business owners who have stopped sending newsletters, then complain about their business going to pot. They can't sell anything if they don't have contact with potential customers.

I've made a concerted attempt to subscribe to all Chamber of Commerce - on the Web™ members' publications. I may have missed a few, but I've been surprised at the outcome.

Too many don't publish at all. Others only send out ads, without even a greeting from the sender - much less an article! WOW– I wonder who is reading those?

With all the fast-paced selling over the past years online, I came to a point of feeling like we all needed a break. During 2011, I called a moratorium on selling products – except for Chamber memberships.

No – I lied. I did ask for contributions to help me get “Just Sayin' ...” launched. But, that was it. And, yes, my bottom line suffered. Yet, with the economy so unstable, it saved me a lot of worry about what was happening.

What I did not do was lose contact with my lists. Our lists are our potential buyers. I only stopped hitting them over the head to buy stuff for a year.

But, I digress. The point is, online businesses can not survive without direct contact with potential customers. So, if you have an online business, it would be to your benefit to start communicating – or, go back to communicating, as the case may be.

Have you noticed how difficult it is to get “real” information
from the broadcast media regarding the upcoming presidential
elections in the USA? Everything is slanted, and much of it is
outright lies.

This is bad enough while trying to choose the Republican
nominee, but it will be even more problematic when the election
process is in full swing.

It's time (actually it's past time) to put broadcasters on notice:

"The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has launched a new
era of big-money politics. The wealthiest 1 percent now have
unchecked power to pick and choose our nation’s leaders. And
they’re doing it by spending tens of millions of dollars on
televised political ads that leave voters awash in
misinformation.

So where’s the broadcast media in all of this? Instead of
exposing this runaway spending and separating fact from fiction
in an election year, they’re lining their pockets with the
winnings — to the tune of more than $3 billion dollars in 2012
ad buys."

Put the largest TV conglomerates on notice. Demand that
broadcasters expose the money trail and cover election-year
issues properly!

Internet Explorer (IE) full of security holes – always has been.
There's no need to even discuss it. Don't use it.

Firefox started off great. But, over time, it got heavy and
slow. It seems every upgrade made it more difficult to use.
Lately, it's gotten a little better. But if, like me, you're a
serious internet user – and don't have time to fool around with
it - it simply has too many toys.

Chrome is fast. It's also the most secure. They actually have
“hacker competitions” and Chrome is the only browser that leaves
those competitions untouched. Unfortunately (for those who care)
it's made by Google.

Which brings us to the newest online uproar – Google's new
privacy settings. Google is consolidating all their various
privacy settings to one setting that will work across all their
platforms.

In my opinion, it's much ado about nothing.

It all comes down to Google's tracking policies. So, I'd like to
point out – there's nothing new about that! Google has been
tracking us all for years! Nothing new there.

You may feel it makes you more vulnerable to having hackers –
or, if you're really paranoid, the government – get your
information. Well, as I said, Google has tracked us for years
and their security has been excellent.

So you want to avoid being tracked? Really not a big deal. Just
don't sign in to Google. When you're logged out, your activity
won't be associated with your user account.

I never sign in unless I'm actually working with Webmaster Tools
or need to use Gmail. Google isn't doing this because they give
a pig's wazoo what you're doing online.

They do it to make more money! They do it to attract more
targeted advertising. The better they can target, the more they
can charge their advertisers!

If you're concerned about what Google knows about you, just go
over to Google's Dashboard and sign in. The
dashboard gives you an overview of all your activity through
Google.

It also provides links to adjust your settings, privacy and
security for every Google service. When the new privacy policy
takes effect, this page will be even simpler to use.